Avatar: The Legend of Korra

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And once again, by request of a friend (the same friend), I'm reviewing Avatar: The Legend of Korra. I'd wanted to do so for a long time but just never got around to doing it because I was lazy.

-.-

Anyways, Legend of Korra technically revolves around the same thing: The Avatar must bring balance and peace to the world. The only difference between this installment and its prequel is that:

1. The Avatar's job here is to maintain the balance and peace between the worlds.

Post-war-with-the-previous-Fire-Lord, the world had technically already regained its peace status under Aang's reign.

2. It's centered within the walls of Republic City.

Republic City is the main setting for this series. It's a large metropolis with a highly-trained police force consisting of metalbenders. 

3. It's more fast-paced.

In contrast with its prequel, The Legend of Korra moves at a slightly faster pace than The Last Airbender. The directors wasted no time in the story development.

4. The characters are older than the previous installment.

The Avatar and Co. in this series are around the ages of 16-18 years old (depending if I'm accurate with my assumptions :P). Definitely older than when it was Aang, Katara and Sokka, whom were 12, 14 and 15 respectively.

5. The Avatar is a girl.

Oh yes, the main character and Avatar is a full-fledged teenage girl with raging hormones and an attitude to match. 

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"Tch, it's not my fault I'm a girl."

-.-

Overview:

Since she was young, Korra had been training under mentors to earthbend, firebend and waterbend (under Katara). The only thing she had left to learn was airbend, whom she was supposed to learn under Tenzin, Aang and Katara's youngest child.

Quite unfortunately for her, Tenzin postponed her training because he had things to settle in Republic City (as he is one of the oh-so-important Council members). Unwilling to postpone her training, Korra follows him to Republic City and runs headfirst into Lin Beifong, Toph's daughter, who is the Chief of the police force in Republic City.

Havoc ensues and before she knows it, Korra is thrown into jail.

After bailing her out, Tenzin reprimands her severely before insisting that she return home to the Southern Water Tribe. Korra refuses and pleads to stay with him in Republic City and his family. He says no at first, but relents in the end.

From here on out, it's trouble and trouble and more trouble. 

In chunks. 

For one, she gets involved in Pro-Bending, which is a competition whereby a team of three benders (water/fire/earthbender) battle against another team of the same composition in an arena, climb their way up to the top and gain the title of Pro-Benders. Against Tenzin's better judgement.

Then, she gets herself wrapped around the finger of Councilman Tarrlok, who is a rotten politician down to his toes.

Oh, she also gets involved in a sticky and complicated relationship with heartthrob Mako, who's supposedly dating Sato Asami, the daughter of Sato Hiroshi.

The primary antagonist in this series is Amon, the leader of the Equalists. The Equalists are a group of non-benders who believe in a world without benders so as to achieve equality amongst the people of the world. 

I can't really blame them for thinking that way. Seems kind of unfair that only chosen people get to manipulate elements, which is so bloody awesome. 

Honestly speaking, I'd be jealous too :P

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Anyways, back to Equalists, they specialise in a kind of fighting which renders bending useless. Things get worse when Amon is revealed to have the ability to take one's bending away. This was demonstrated when he captured a few benders (including Bolin, Mako's brother and one of the members on the Fire Ferrets team). Of course, he's saved before anything was done to him.

Either way, knowing that Amon could do what was known as "energybending" (whom Aang was thought as the only person in history who could do it) worried a great deal of people, Korra and Tenzin included. And so, the great cat-and-mouse chase of the century begins, with everybody on Lin Beifong's task force as well as Korra participating.

Not wanting to spoil everything before you actually watch the show, I'll just conclude with:

3/5 for Character Development. 

I know, I know, it's kind of surprising, given the positive remarks from other critics. Yet, I find Korra insufferable in more ways than not. I understand that she's meant to be obstinate and aggressive as well as stubborn and headstrong, but there's only so much people can deal with. 

And, although Mako is drop-dead gorgeous, I really hated him when he started "dating" Asami. I can't even call it dating because he never really liked her. It was like he was with her only because he was in denial (regarding his love for Korra). 

In that sense, I guess it was pretty redundant.

Bleghh~

The only thing stopping me from rating this 2/5 is the fact that I love the other characters. I love Tenzin. He's hilarious. I love Lin too. And I find Bolin a good contrast to Mako's "dark and gloomy" personality.

Also, despite the fact that I didn't like Korra in the beginning, I began liking her towards the end because she stopped worrying about her feelings for Mako and instead really started to kick butt :P

4/5 for Originality (after the first series).

I think it was great that they were able to come up with the concept of the Equalists and their fight for a non-bending world. It's different from The Last Airbender, where one nation decides on conquering the rest of the nations through war. 

The fact that the Avatar is a girl in this sequel also strikes me as a good point. Apparently, it's because Avatar Kyoshi got great reviews.

5/5 for Artwork.

Since The Last Airbender, one of the reasons why I've loved this series is because of the art. I love the style of the four nations as they evolved and even the police force's outfits. So cool :P I love Korra's hairstyle too :)

Long story short: The art's great.

3/5 for Storyline.

This technically falls under Originality, because the storyline has to be based on the creator's originality, but while I rated Originality 4/5, I only rate this 3/5 because it was quite choppy for me. At some times I feel it was rushed, and the other times it feels as if stuff were added in just to satisfy the episode length.

All in all, I don't mind it, and it's only MY opinion, so I didn't think too much of it.

4/5 for Time Well Spent.

Haha.

It's not really something I would put into when reviewing, because it's retarded and makes no sense, but I consider this series something you should watch if you have time.

*          *          *

In short, I would continue watching this. Naturally, the story hasn't concluded. It's only in its first season, Book 1: Air and has been airing since April till June. The second season has been said to start sometime in 2013, which is next year.

You may read Sekijitsu's pre-review on this show, though, if you'd like a second opinion :)

P/S: Please click on my Nuffnang ads :)

P/S/S: Please remember that this is purely MY opinion on the show. To know more, you should really watch this yourself (and I strongly recommend this to teenagers who like stuff like this).

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"Critics, bring it on!"